New state regulations will put agriculture out of business

4:59 PM,
Nov. 1, 2013

Lower Shore farmers are very concerned about Maryland's new phosphorus management regulations.

Written by

Delegate
Mike McDermott

A new tool developed by the University of Maryland is said to allow the state the ability to determine acceptable levels of phosphorus in our farm fields. If those levels are breached, no organic chicken manure can be applied. This tool, which has much more in common with a dagger, could effectively eliminate 50 percent to 80 percent of the fields on the Lower Shore.

At a recent meeting of a standing-room-only crowd in Salisbury, Secretary Buddy Hance of the Department of Agriculture offered few answers to the questions raised. The University of Maryland folks who provided the science were a ...